Men were sentenced to 2 yearsimprisonment and compensation of 4.71 million yuan for burning mountain forest with boiled noodles

The fire in Fenghuang Mountain in 2017 touched the hearts of countless Zhuhai people. The uneasy night made everyone remember it vividly. Recently, the first case of criminal incidental civil public interest litigation handled by the Xiangzhou District Procuratorate was pronounced publicly in the Xiangzhou District Court.

Case review

On December 15, 2017, the defendant Zeng Mou, carrying mountaineering equipment, lighters and iron pots, set up a tent camp and boiled noodles on a hillside near the tail of Baoshi Reservoir in Fenghuangshan Tang.

At about 18 oclock on the 20th of the same month, the defendant once again came here to make fire and cook noodles. Because he did not extinguish the embers in the stove in time, the embers rekindled and ignited the forest under the action of the mountain breeze. He escaped from the mountain because of his inability to extinguish and rescue, resulting in the area of the overfired forest reaching 76.9530 hectares. The burned forest belongs to the provincial level ecological public welfare forest and commercial forest.

The picture in this article comes from the official name of Weixin Zhuhai Political Law

First Instance sentenced

The defendant was sentenced to two yearsimprisonment for the Fenghuangshan fire case, and the defendant was sentenced to compensation for the cost of ecological forest vegetation restoration for 4717522.86 yuan in part of the civil public interest litigation incidental to the criminal case.

According to the procuratorate of Xiangzhou District, the defendant Zeng Mous behavior has been suspected of fire crime and should be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law. At the same time, Zeng Mous behavior caused serious damage to the original vegetation and planting conditions of Fenghuangshan woodland, destroyed the sustainable utilization of ecological public welfare forest and its ecological functions, violated the public interest, and brought a lawsuit in the eligible subjects without legal provisions. Under the circumstances, the court, as a representative of the public interest, brings criminal incidental civil action against the defendant Zeng Mou according to law, and investigates the civil liability of Zeng Mou for infringement of the public interest by a fire act.

In accordance with the order of first punishment followed by the people, after the completion of the criminal part, the prosecutor of public interest litigation cross-examines the evidence of the defendants factual behavior, the category of overfired forest land, the amount of loss and other controversial focus, and conducts a court trial debate, closely focusing on the legal basis for the responsibility of the defendant and the fact that the public interest has been infringed, and other core issues are analyzed and demonstrated. There is no objection to the fact that the incidental civil indictment is confirmed. The court expressed its guilt and repentance, and said that it would make every effort to compensate.

Active attack to restore green planting

After the Fenghuangshan Fire, the Xiangzhou District Procuratorate continued to pay attention to the follow-up treatment, especially in the light of the regreening issues after the Fenghuangshan Fire, and took it as a case filing review of administrative public interest litigation, sending pre-litigation procuratorial suggestions to the relevant functional departments to urge them to perform their duties. At present, the vegetation greening work in the over-fired areas of Fenghuangshan Mountain is being actively promoted.